Making Event Employees Comfortable: A Guide for Businesses and Organizations

Attending events is a great way to increase your organization’s exposure and build your brand. Sporting events, fairs, music festivals, trade shows and a host of other events can put you in contact with hundreds to thousands of potential customers, so it’s important to show up and be ready. To reach as many people as possible and stand out from the competition, it’s best to work with a team to maximize outreach and optimize operations at your station. Whether you pay employees or recruit volunteers, you’ll want to do everything you can to keep your team comfortable at your next event. In this guide, we’ll show you how.

Below, we’ve outlined everything you need to keep your employees and/or volunteers comfortable at your next event. We cover key product essentials as well as dos and don’ts to help you make sure that your team stays happy and productive.

 

Space

The first step to ensuring that your employees are comfortable at the next event you attend is making sure they have enough space to work. At booths, kiosks, and pop-up shops, space is certainly a commodity — but that doesn’t mean you and your employees have to be cramped. To ensure that everyone has room to be comfortable, start off by designating a space for breaks. That way, anyone on your team can take a break without worrying about where to sit or stand. From there, build a sensible workflow based on the space of your booth. At the front, maintain a clear and clutter-free zone where your employees can easily interact with customers. Keep your space clean by tiding up throughout the day, and try to keep merchandise sorted and stored off of the ground. This will free up floor space for your employees to walk about freely.

 

Shelter

After securing a space, setting up shelter should be your next step in ensuring the comfort of your employees at any event. Large events such as music festivals, fairs and sporting events frequently take place outdoors, which means that they’re subject to (often unpredictable) weather. To keep your employees protected from inclement weather (such as rain, wind, or even excessive direct sunlight), it’s imperative to bring shelter to your space at the next event you attend. To get the best bang for your buck, we recommend investing in a portable and easy-to-set-up product that you can take with you to all of your events. Here are a few products to consider:

• Instant Canopies: Also known as pop-up canopies or instant tents, instant canopies earn their names through their incredibly fast and easy setup times. With no assembly required, these tents simply need to have their four-legged metal frames expanded and they’re ready to go. Pack-up is also a breeze: Just reverse the process, pack your tent into its carrying case, and carry it away. (Many pop-up tents weigh under 50 pounds, easy enough for a single person to carry.)
• Inflatable Tents: Inflatable tents are another great shelter solution for events large and small. These tents use air as their frames. Setup couldn’t be easier: Simply turn on the tent’s included pump and let it do the work. Inflatable tents are available in a wide range of shapes and sizes for creative shelter that’s great for keeping employees comfortable.
• Star and Arch Tents: Star and arch tents are aptly named tents used at outdoor events worldwide. Staked into the ground, these tents resemble stars and/or arches when erected. They are great choices for those who want to create shelter over a large area, though they do take longer to set up.
• Event Tents: Speaking of large areas, if you’re going to occupy something bigger than a standard booth at your next event, you may want to consider investing in a full-scale event tent. These shelter solutions are large tents designed to hold a substantial number of patrons, employees, and merchandise. Often custom-made, they’re ideal for shows, large retail expos, dinners and other highly-attended activities.

 

Seating

After you’ve established space and set up shelter, you’ll want to secure seating for your employees and volunteers. When attending an event for your business or organization, you can expect to work all day to get the most out of the exposure the event offers. Long event hours can be quite tiring, so giving your employees a place to sit throughout the course of the day will help them stay physically comfortable and mentally alert. To maximize space, we recommend investing in folding chairs that can be folded up and put away when not in use.

 

Food and Drinks

Nobody is comfortable when hungry or thirsty. For this simple reason, food and drink are absolute essentials for ensuring employee comfort at any event. To make sure that your employees have ample sustenance whenever they need it, you have two options. First, you can pack food and drinks. This is a good option because it allows your employees to eat and drink anytime they need to. (In fact, we recommend packing several water bottles, at the very least, to keep everyone hydrated.) Your other option is to explore what the event itself has to offer. If you’re attending a fair, trade show or music festival, you’ll likely have several enticing eateries to choose from, each only a short walk away from your own booth. Many events offer tokens for attending organizations, so see if you can score a few free meals and treat your employees.

 

Information

While not a physical means of comfort, information is essential to ensuring that your employees stay comfortable and at-ease during your event. In fact, giving out information should come first before everything else on your list. Making sure that your employees are informed about the event, their duties, available resources and other must-knows will help them do their jobs better. It will also improve comfort and boost morale overall. Before your next event, speak to the event promoter and build a checklist of everything your employees need to know. That way, everyone will be prepared and ready to perform.

 

Organization

Organization should be your overall guiding principle at any event. Keeping your space and workflow organized will make operations easier for everyone. This, in turn, will contribute to employee comfort. One of the biggest keys to organization is storage, a factor often overlooked at events. Bring portable shelves, racks, bins and other storage items to house your merchandise and administrative items. This will help keep your space clear and clutter-free. Another rule for organization: If you’re not going to be using it, leave it in the car. Extra clothes, food and other personal items are all prime contributors to disorganization at event booths. Keep them in your vehicle — you can always go grab them during downtime.

 

Communication

Even after completing the above steps, you may find that there is more to be done in order to ensure optimal employee comfort at the next event you attend. Above all else, the best way to ensure employee comfort is to speak with employees themselves. Opening avenues of communication before, after and during your next event will help keep everyone comfortable and on the same page. Poll your employees before the event and ask them what they need in order to work comfortably and effectively. Schedule shifts with backups for every person. That way, you won’t have to pressure employees who might have scheduling conflicts or sudden obligations pop up. During the event, be sure to check in on everyone to make sure their needs are being met. After the event, ask your employees what could have been done better. This will give you valuable data for events going forward.

 

Learn More and Shop Event Essentials at Extreme Canopy

Interested in learning more about how you can make your employees and volunteers comfortable at the next event you attend? Our experts at Extreme Canopy are here to help. Contact us with your event-related questions and learn how our products can help you maximize comfort for your team at any event. Ready to shop? Check out our incredible selection of instant canopies, inflatable tents, event tents and more — all designed and manufactured in-house by our industry-leading professionals. (We do custom builds, too!) Explore our site to learn more, and shop with our team here at Extreme Canopy today!